Bluetooth not working in Ubuntu 21.10 and Greater

Dan

1/10/24, 9:44 PM

I am running ubuntu in virtualbox on a windows 11 host. The bluetooth controller is passed into the Ubuntu guest. This works great in ubuntu 21.04 and prior. However, whenever I use Ubuntu 21.10 or higher the bluetooth does not work.

In 21.10 and higher the command hciconfig dev shows the device but it shows the status as DOWN. Trying hciconfig hci0 up results in the error Can't init device hci0: Input/Output error (5). I have tried all Ubuntu versions up to the latest including 22.04 LTS and 22.10. Nothing after 21.04 works.

There is one odd thing that makes the bluetooth work. I start up a VM in virtualbox with ubuntu 21.04 and confirm that bluetooth is working. Then, while keeping that VM up I start another VM with ubuntu (anything greater than 21.04) and confirm that the bluetooth controller is not available (because it is currently passed into 21.04). In virtualbox I remove the bluetooth controller from 21.04 which passes it to the other VM with 22.04. Then suddenly bluetooth works fine in the VM with version > 21.04.

My wifi/bluetooth card is an internal intel AX201.

Can someone help me figure out what is going on?

Thank You!

0 + 2

virtualbox

bluetooth

guiverc

1/10/24, 10:17 PM

The issue is likely not what OS/release you're using, but the kernel stack involved. You weren't specific on kernels, but you did suggest it worked with 5.11 but not 5.13 or higher; thus why not try Ubuntu 20.04 LTS using the 5.15 kernel? (ie. HWE kernels stack) and again 20.04 LTS using the 5.4 kernel? (ie. GA kernel stack). If what I'm suggesting is an issue; you'll find it works on 20.04 when using the GA stack, but not 20.04 when using HWE. As *drivers* are actually kernel modules; changing kernel stacks can help, but as you're using a VM host settings also come into play I'm ignoring.

Dan

1/10/24, 11:24 PM

@guiverc thanks for the comment. I tried 20.04 with the 5.15 and 5.4 kernels and what you suggest is true. Bluetooth works with 5.4 but not 5.15 in 20.04 LTS. Is there a way to make bluetooth work on the latest kernel?

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EN: Bluetooth not working in Ubuntu 21.10 and Greater

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